Django Unchained,Quentin Tarantino’s twisted Christmas offering of a spaghetti Western has been causing some major controversy – in more ways than one.

Early reviews of the film have been split, but that’s only what you’d expect from a typical Tarantino movie, isn’t it? Is it good, because it’s bad, or is it just plain bad? Apparently it’s bad, because it’s offensive. This objection has been raised by Spike Lee, who has completely refused to see the film, reports Indiewire. His criticism is that Django, which sees Jamie Foxx as a slave and Leonardo Dicaprio as a plantation owner, is an unrealistic and offencive portrayal of slavery in the US.

Lee vented on Twitter, saying: “American Slavery Was Not A Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western. It Was A Holocaust. My Ancestors Are Slaves. Stolen From Africa. I Will Honor Them.” This of course sparked a heated discussion, during which Lee explained that he wasn’t “hating” on Tarantino himself, but refused to see the film out of principle. This side of the story poses some interesting questions and will surely provoke some more heated discussion in the coming weeks. The question is though, isn’t Spike Lee’s objection just giving the film even more publicity and hence, defeating the purpose?